Meeting You
by Synesti
Summary: When Henry Griffin first met Margaret Winnock, he saw a smart girl who might be hiding sadness behind a brave face.  When Henry Griffin first met Maggie Winnock, he saw a frightened girl who his heart had already begun to love.
1. Chapter 1

Meeting You

** Hi Everyone! Thank you all for your kind reviews on my first story, Dripping Seconds. This is my second, and much shorter story. It's also a Maggie x Henry story. I hope you enjoy it. **

The first time he met Margaret Winnock, he was running haphazardly and late into his History class on his first day of school.

"Henry Griffin?" the teacher said, curious but reserved. "Seeing as it's your first day, we'll let it go. Did you get lost?"

"Yes," I gasped out between panting, hurried breaths. _If only Jasper had been willing to come early and show me where my classes were…_ He thought darkly to himself, considering a few choice words in a variety of languages that hopefully none of his classmates would be able to grasp.

He stumbled to his seat, forgetting, as always, that he was wearing a heavy backpack. He liked to travel light.

In the seat down his row, but more towards the middle (he was against a wall), was a girl he managed to notice even through his embarrassment and anger towards Jasper. She was pretty, he admitted to himself, short with long dark hair and, unlike the rest of the class, wasn't looking at him. She was focused attentively on the teacher, her notebook out and ready.

The class passed in a blur he was hardly able to focus on, perking up only when he heard the names of places he had been or lived in, which was often enough that the teacher never noticed his glazed eyes. He couldn't wait for it to be over. To occupy himself; he tried to understand his classmates, but, though most very superficial, found himself stuck on the very attentive girl he had noticed earlier.

Even when the teacher left to get something, leaving the class in the perfect place for unsupervised chatter, the girl never looked at him.

She was the only student who never looked his way, the only girl who wasn't eyeing him with some upsetting desire in their eyes. And for that reason, he found himself very intrigued.

"Jasper," he said, coming up to his cousin in the hallway between History and Math. "Who is that girl?" He pointed out the girl, who was collecting some notebooks and a book from her locker.

"That, cousin, is Margaret Winnock. She's really, really smart, but don't try to talk with her. She scoffs at anyone with an IQ below hers…which, of course, is all of us."

"I think she's lonely."

Jasper laughed harshly. "_Her? _Please. She pushes people away. That girl wouldn't be lonely if she had to live in he woods by herself for years."

"I like it in the woods."  
>"That's not the point, Henry. The point is she doesn't want friends, nor does she need friends, nor will she allow people to be her friends. That being said, give her the space she needs, no friendship or anything else will come out of it. The only thing she's good for is for teaming up on projects." Jasper walked away, obviously believing the conversation was done.<p>

"I think people like you are why she is lonely," Henry said quietly, and turned to go to his next class.

He saw the girl called Margaret again in his English class, right before lunch. The teacher had to talk to a different teacher, and so he went over and tried to talk to her.

Up close, he realized that something about her poise and facial expression reminded him of a statue he had seen somewhere. He decided that, if what Jasper said about her had been true, she would like that. And probably would be able to educate him on the history of the statue.

"Hi," he said.

Her head snapped up from the book she was reading, the same book he had seen her retrieve from the locker earlier. She looked at him. "Oh. Hello." Her voice was neither friendly nor unfriendly. She looked back down at the book.

"I'm Henry…Henry Griffin. I'm new."

She glanced up at him again. "Oh. You're Jasper's cousin. I can't say I see the resemblance. I'm Margaret Winnock."

"Jasper says you are very smart." He wanted to catch her off-guard, to see some emotion flit across her carefully composed face.

"Does he?" She said, flatly. There was something in her voice, but it wasn't shock, but bitterness. "Well, I suppose that's one of the nicer things he could have chosen to tell you about me." She looked back down at the book. He remembered the other things Jasper had said, about her being stuck-up and antisocial, and was glad he hadn't mentioned them.

He thought about telling her about the statue, but couldn't decide whether he wanted to or not. She didn't seem to want to talk to him, though it wasn't as though she didn't really want to talk to him. She just didn't seem to have anything she wanted to say to him.

No matter where he had been in the world, girls had always harbored some sort of fascination for Henry, something that he had never returned. This was especially awkward in countries where he would be considered of eligible age to marry. And for once in his life, he had met a girl that absolutely couldn't care less.

Backing away, he went back to his seat.

He didn't think she had noticed, or had paid much attention to him at all.

For some reason, that made him unhappy, and as he struggled to pay attention to the teacher, he found himself in a bigger tangle than before.


	2. Chapter 2

Meeting You

** Hi! Thank you to all of you kind reviews that have reviewed my story! I know it's really new and it's not quite like Dripping Seconds…but you seem to respond favorably to it, so I'm continuing! Thanks again!**

The first time Henry Griffin met Maggie Winnock he was standing in a hallway wondering what he ought to do until Jasper was ready to go home. He could always walk himself home, but it somehow felt wrong, as if the whole reason his parents sent him to America was so that he could do something _other _than walk himself everywhere.

"Henry, if you want to head home without me, I completely understand," Jasper had told him that morning when he confessed that he had to stay late to work on a project.

"I'll wait," Henry had told Jasper. Jasper had accepted, not minding the company though he wouldn't have admitted it to Henry, and arranged that if Henry didn't change his mind and head home early, he was to meet Jasper by the front door at four in the afternoon.

"If you aren't there," Jasper warned, "I will just leave. So if you forget or get distracted or something, you will have to walk yourself home. And I won't feel sorry for you."

Henry reflected on this as he stood in the hallway, glancing occasionally at the watch his father had given him before he had left in the vain hope that the minutes would miraculously fly by if he checked frequently. _Only forty-five minutes left…remember, patience is a virtue…_he counseled himself. He wanted to meditate, but had found that doing so in public places was not always well received, much to his dismay.

Down the hallway adjacent to the one he was standing in, he heard sudden loud voices, and what sounded like mean laughter. He could already hear his mother's voice in his head. _Henry, you don't always have to be a hero. You're a smart boy, use your head and decide which situations it would be better just to stay out of. I know it's hard…_

Henry shook his head. _But I can't just stand here…it sounds like someone is hurting someone else, maybe only with words but that still hurts…_ He remembered how sad he felt when Jasper teased him for being culturally inept. He couldn't just stand there, so he headed out down the hallway, walking as silently as he could in case he had misread the situation and needed to quietly exit without drawing attention to himself. _Yes, Mom. I use my brain. I just use it to be the hero, if I think someone needs protection._

The voices he had been hearing were the voices of three girls. They were standing against a wall, facing the wall on the other side of the hallway where someone was busy arranging something or retrieving something from his or her locker. By the frame he assumed the person was female, but had no idea as to who it could be. He recognized the other three as some of the giggly girls who were very much interested in him, and stayed to the shadows. He was just about to decide that he had overreacted and head back to where he had been waiting when one of the giggly girls began to speak.

"Haven't you ever had a date?" said the first girl.

"Of course she hasn't," said another cruelly. "She's much too ugly to get a date, there isn't any blind boys at our school, and even they would be able to tell with _her._"

The first girl began to laugh, and the third girl picked up the chain of taunts. "Hey, Margaret! Maybe if you weren't so busy being a brain, you would actually take the time to notice how ugly you are!"

He felt a sudden ache in his chest, and he hoped that it wasn't Margaret Winnock, the girl from earlier, who they were taunting. Before he could decide what to do, the three girls picked up and left. The forth, still reaching for something in her locker, finally took the books from her locker and put them in her backpack. She slung the backpack over her shoulders and slammed the locker shot, walking past him very quickly. He realized that she was crying.  
>He climbed out of his dark corner. "Hey, Margaret?" he said, suddenly feeling foolish.<p>

"Go away, Henry," she said harshly, walking even faster. She turned into what Jasper had told him was a girl's bathroom, somewhere where he really shouldn't go.

Hardly thinking about it, he swung open the door and followed her inside.

"Henry!" she hissed angrily. "This is a _girl's _bathroom. In case you hadn't noticed, you're a _boy. _If you have to go, use the urinals or stalls in _your_ bathroom." He stood awkwardly in the corner. "Why are you following me?" she demanded, beginning to cry again. "Why won't you leave me alone? Why won't any of you leave me alone?" She leaned against the wall and slid into a sitting position, wrapping her arms around her legs and putting her forehead on kneecaps.

He felt himself being torn in two, the half of him that was afraid and unsure of what to do trying to get him to leave the bathroom, but the half of him that didn't like to see people hurt pulling him towards her.

_Always remember to be the best person you can be in any given moment. Always remember that each footprint you take upon this earth leaves a print, and every word you say to a person leaves a print upon them too, Henry. _His father had told him that on a daily basis when he was young, and then again every time he had to make a decision that would impact things.

He sat down on the floor next to her. "Don't cry," he said quietly. She continued to cry. Why shouldn't she? It wasn't like he had said anything that would make her stop. "They're just idiots," he said. "They don't know what they're talking about. See, you're smart. You know what you're talking about. That's why they're jealous. They have just enough brains to know that they are missing out on something, and you have it."

She didn't raise her head, but he could sense that she was listening to him, so he continued, hoping his words were having some affect.

"You remind me of a statue that I saw once with my parents, did you know that?"

He could feel the smile radiate through her. He had been right, she was pleased with the idea. "Where was the statue?" She asked quietly.

"I think it was in Italy, I saw it a couple years ago and it seems like Italy."

"Why do I look like it?"

"The person in the statue is very serious and focused and driven, like you are in class. But they have something underneath that, some sort of sadness or fear. And so it reminds me of you." _And it's beautiful. Like you are._

She raised her head. "I ought to be heading home, I have a ton of homework to do and I had to walk today. You should probably get out of here before someone comes in and thinks your some sort of creeper for being in a girls bathroom and all."

"I'll walk you home," he offered without thinking about it. Jasper would just think that he had headed home early, having lost patience, and would meet up with him at home.

"Thanks, Henry." They stood up and left as quickly as they could, luckily meeting no one who would make assumptions about what a girl and a boy would have been doing together in a bathroom. He walked her all the way home. They didn't talk very much, but it was enjoyable anyway.

At her doorstep, he reminded her, "Don't let those girls get you down. You are way better than they will ever be, that's why they give you a hard time. Remember that."

"Thanks, Henry. See you tomorrow."

"Bye, Margaret."

"Henry?"

"Mmm?"

"Call me Maggie, okay?"

"Okay. Bye, Maggie."

"Bye, Henry."

He walked home quickly, and he realized he couldn't stop smiling. And somehow, that didn't bother him, because he was imagining her smiling too.


	3. Chapter 3

Meeting You

** Hi! I can't really decide how long to make this story, but I'm glad that you all seem to be enjoying it thus far. The chapters are a lot short than they were in my last story, but I'm kind of like the change in length because I don't think I have enough in each chapter to make them all that much longer.**

"Jasper?" Henry asked while they were working on their homework that night up in the room they shared. He let himself swing back and forth on the hammock once before continuing. "How do you know if you like a girl in the like-like way?"

Jasper's head snapped up so quickly that Henry was afraid he had hurt himself. "What are you talking about, Henry?" He demanded, seeming confused and also interested, something that he was rarely when it came to Henry. "Are you telling me that you think you might like a girl? Which girl? One at school?"

"I don't know if I like her, that's why I asked you the question. Can you please answer it?" He tried to speak as politely and unflustered as he could, but he could feel his face burning bright red, like a flare drawing attention to how out-of-place and embarrassed he was.

"You think about her constantly and always want to be with her. You might have dreams about her, and you'll want to hold her hand or kiss her. You'll want to ask her on a date." He noticed the puzzled facial expression Henry had on. Henry remembered the words from the taunts of the girls who had been giving Maggie a hard time and had a vague idea of what the word meant, it had something to do with a girl and a boy doing something. "A date is when a boy and a girl go on an activity together, like dinner or watching a movie or going on a walk or something to spend time together. Now…which girl do you think you might be interested in?"

"I don't know. It doesn't really fit what you jus said, so I'm probably just confused." _I don't think I'm confused…_ "Never mind, Jasper, sorry for bothering you." _I wouldn't want you knowing, especially because you were somewhat rude when you were talking about her to me. I don't you would like her. _"I'll let you know if I ever have any more questions that I'll want you to answer." _There won't be. Well, there will be lots of questions, but none that I'm going to want you to answer._

Jasper looked at him with a somewhat odd facial expression, but then shrugged. Henry could almost hear the words going through Jasper's head. Something about how strange Henry was and how he would never begin to understand someone so weird. _Well, Jasper, you understand more than you think you do. I just don't want you to understand. But you could learn to…if you learned to open your mind and be a little bit of a better listener, _Henry thought to himself, going back to trying to focus on his homework.

That night he found himself unable to sleep, no matter how hard he tried. He got up from his hammock and sat down on the floor, trying to meditate in order to cleanse his mind from the confusion and anxiety he had felt through the day. When his mind felt a little calmer, he climbed back in his hammock, looking across the room at the bed next to him where Jasper was sleeping. He wished he had a better relationship with Jasper. _I'm sure we'll get there. It's just we don't know each other yet, but we will with time._

Having reassured himself, he fell asleep relatively quickly, promptly (at least to his sleeping knowledge) beginning a dream about going to school. It was completely a normal day except Maggie allowed him to walk her home again (he got the impression in the dream that they had been doing something for several days). The only reason it was different this time was that they were talking quite a bit, and partway along the walk he decided to hold her hand and she let him.

He woke up to the sounds of birds outside of his window, singing happily about their lives as if they were dying to share experiences with him. The sky was grayish, at though dawn was just about to break. He sat up and felt a giant smile spread across his face, the same one that he had struggled to control before he had gotten back home the afternoon before. "Hey, Jasper!" He said somewhat loudly to his sleeping cousin across the room.

"Why are you up?" Jasper grumbled back, sounding just barely awake enough to open his mouth and make sounds come out. "No sane person would be up this early."

"Well, you're up too now, so I guess that makes you just as crazy as me." Jasper laughed quietly. "I'm going to head out early. I want to walk to school and explore some of the area around here on the way. I might walk home also. Is that okay?"

"Sure…I'll meet you by the front again, if you're staying? I'll give you ten minutes and then I'll head out, okay? Just in case you are running late or something. Try not to get lost."  
>"I don't get lost," said Henry, self-assured. He decided not to turn on the lights so that he wouldn't disturb Jasper, and quickly changed clothing. He grabbed his backpack and swung it on to his back as he crept downstairs, grabbing a banana for breakfast before he headed out the door.<p>

He knew he was way too early for what he planned to do, so he walked to the nearby park and climbed a tree, leaving his backpack hidden in a cluster of branches just off the ground. Once he was near the top, he looked out at the sky. The sunrise was just beginning, and as he watched it spread over the sky, he found himself full of a sense of peace. _Everywhere I go, the sun will rise. Everywhere she goes, the sun will rise too. And if we look up at the sky, we will see the same sunrise, just from different places._

He waited awhile, until he thought it was late enough, and climbed down, retrieving his backpack on the way. Taking off, he walked towards Maggie's house, remembering the route he had taken the afternoon before. He arrived soon enough, and thought about knocking, but decided that he didn't want to disturb her if she wasn't ready yet. Instead, he sat himself on the steps of her front porch and waited.

Eventually, he heard the door behind him open. "Henry?" Maggie asked, coming over to look at him. "What are you doing here?"

She looked beautiful that morning, wearing a soft blue sweater and jeans, her backpack on her back and a few books in her arms. He found himself lost for words, his heart pounding in his chest, but then remembered what he was going to ask. "Well…I wanted to see if you would like to walk to school with me today? I enjoyed your company yesterday and…I think I would enjoy it again this morning if you would be willing."

"Sure…" she said, sounding surprised. "I'd love too. Are you sure you'll be warm enough?" she asked, looking at his arms. He had forgotten to bring a sweatshirt. "It is kind of cold this morning."

"I'll be fine." His heart was beating way too quickly for him to even consider that getting cold was an option. He felt his face getting warm, and he stood up to avoid her seeing. "So…should we head out now, or am I early?"

"You're a little early, but I prefer to be early to school, so it's fine. We'll head out now." She climbed down off the porch, and he followed her. "Thank you again for helping me out yesterday."

"It wasn't any problem. I heard them laughing meanly and saying insults, and I didn't know who they were for but I just can't stand it when people do that. My mom says I have too much of a heroes instinct."

"I rather like it," she admitted somewhat shyly. "It helps you be a better person than if you didn't have it. Just make sure to pick your battles wisely, and you'll be fine."

There was an awkward pause, and he decided to fill it by asking her a question. "Do you walk to school often?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes I drive, but I try to be very careful about car emissions. Global warming is a problem, and I plan on taking it seriously as much as I can."

"Are you a vegetarian?"

"Yes. Are you?"

"I was when we lived in some places…but most of the time we were in places where we didn't have much access to food, I ate what we could get and if it was meat, it was meat. So…I don't know what I am here. I could be either, and I haven't decided since I have a choice."

They were nearly to school now. "Do you want to walk home again this afternoon?" He asked her, suddenly nervous.

"I'd enjoy that." She smiled at him. "But I think we should show up somewhat separately. If we show up together some people will probably think we're together, and they're too thick-skulled for us to fix that."

"But we did come together…" Henry said, confused.

"Not that sort of together, Henry," she said, seeming amused. "The different sort of together."

"I don't know what the other type of together is," he admitted. He felt stupid.

"Oh…you probably think of it in some different terms or something. A boy and a girl are described as being 'together' when they are in dating. And they date when they are in love. So. Some of our idiotic classmates might turn that into a school-wide rumor if they see us arrive together."

"Oh…okay…"

"I'll see you this afternoon then. Meet me here, and try to avoid giving them supplies for rumors. Those can be really ugly and embarrassing. We don't want anyone teasing us about being 'in love.' Kids our age can be so immature."

"Okay," he said, and watched her walk ahead of him. Once he was sure he was alone and no one would be able to hear him, he locked his eyes on her steadily shrinking frame. "But I am in love with you…" he admitted.

Above him, the sun was raising overhead.


	4. Chapter 4

Meeting You

** Thank you for reviewing, my reviewers, and thank you for alerting, my alerting people, and thank you for favoring my story, my favoring people. Man, those are weird verbs. And thank you to you too, readers!**

** Sorry this one took so long…I had writers block, and I had to get my wisdom teeth out (not fun!) so I was in recovery for awhile.**

It went that way for nearly four weeks. He walked her to school each day, and he walked her home each day. Soon they began to speak more and more, learning each other from the inside out. She knew about his feelings of abandonment by his parents, and how when he was little he had tried to adopt a young wolf, only to have its mother come back and retrieve it the next day. He knew about her loneliness and feelings of awkwardness when it came to her intelligence, and how she loved citrus and hated strawberries.

But that's as far as their relationship went. They didn't speak at school. They didn't talk on the phone (not that Henry knew how to call her) and they didn't hang out after school. Once (just once, mind you) she and Jasper had been partnered for a project and she had been over at their house briefly, but they didn't even look at each other. Well…he had looked at her…to see if she was watching him.

He hadn't noticed those moments when she had had to drag her own eyes away from him in order to pretend that she wouldn't rather be sitting with him and working on a project, rather than working with Jasper. And when Jasper called her 'cold' when talking to Henry, Henry had to bite his lip to avoid telling him she wasn't. Once when they had been walking, his hand had brushed hers by accident. Her hands were warm.

He could understand why she wouldn't have wanted someone like Jasper knowing about their walking together. Henry did feel cousinly affection for Jasper, but when it came to Maggie (or Margaret, as Jasper still had to call her), Jasper could be a real 'jerk'. Maggie had taught him that word. And 'hang out' and 'what's up' and 'iPod' and 'cell phone'. Walking with her was paying off when it came to his cultural immersion, as well.

The weather had gotten colder, and it was now approaching the beginning of October. It was too cold for this time of year, everyone was saying. Henry had begun wearing a jacket when he walked to and from school, but mostly on Maggie's request. Sometimes, though he wouldn't admit it to her, he was very glad for it.

Then somewhere in the second week of October, Maggie caught a cold. It was just a small cold, though he asked her more than once if she was fine. "Henry," she said, half-laughing at him. "It's a cold. I'm sure they have them in all those places where you have been. In fact, I'm pretty sure that you've had one yourself at least once. Calm down. I'm fine. It's just a little cold."

"Yeah…" he admitted. "I just don't like it." She smiled at him, trying to put him at ease, and he tried to look ease-put, but found himself watching her from the corner of his eye. Maybe it was just him, but wasn't she a little paler than usual? And was her nose running a little bit more than the cold normally made it? He tried to shake himself clear of those thoughts, but it was proving difficult for him. "Are you sure your jacket is warm enough at least? If you get cold, wouldn't there be a chance of it becoming a bigger problem, even if it is only a small cold right now?"

"Yes, but my jacket it plenty warm." She coughed with difficulty for a few moments before she was able to breath again. He looked at her, concerned. "Henry, it's fine. Dad says that if it gets any worse then I have to go to the doctor, but until then I'm just trying to stay warm and decently hydrated. Calm down."

He 'calmed down' at her request, and stopped bothering her. But that didn't mean that he wasn't watching her, ready to grab her and drag her to the nearest doctor's office if she got even the slightest bit worse. And it didn't mean that he wasn't taking secret trips to the library researching medicinal herbs that he could find in his area, or even by in the grocery store. On one such trip he had bumped into his own biology teacher, who, having asked what Henry was doing with such books, received an answer that Henry was 'studying natural medicinal remedies in the North America for common respiratory illnesses.' The teacher had smiled approvingly and asked Henry for a copy of the results, should he find any. "Who knows," the teacher said over his shoulder. "Maybe I'll count it as a project, or give you some extra credit."

Henry did find results. Henry always found results, if there were results to be found anywhere. After wandering around outdoors for about and hour and buying some strange-looking plants at the grocery store, he mixed it up, added some salad leaves in order to make it look something like food, and handed it to Maggie the next morning. "Eat this for lunch, please."

She looked at the strange leafy concoction with undisguised mistrust. "What _is _it?" she said. "Some sort of salad. Henry, are you trying to do food experiments on me?" She coughed again. Her cough was getting worse, and he could hear strange sounds when she was breathing, which he didn't like.

"It's a very interesting salad. I promise it's safe, and it's completely vegetarian, so don't worry about that either. Please try it. If it's completely disgusting I will never make you eat it again."  
>"Fine," she had agreed. "But if I die because of this you will have to contend with my father, and believe me, that will not be fun for you." She put the plastic container in her bag. "It's a good thing too. I forgot my lunch this morning, I was going to have to risk the cafeteria food." She coughed again, and removed some tissues and blew her nose.<p>

They never sat together at lunch, he always sat with Jasper, except when Jasper was too busy (a good portion of the time) in which case he sat by himself. Such was the case that day. Maggie always sat by herself. Today she was at a table nearby, and he could see her take out the plastic container with the 'salad' and take a few bites, seeming alarmed at the taste. She finished it though, and that afternoon she handed him back the empty plastic container. "I really hope you know what you're doing Henry," she said as they parted ways.

For the next two days, she seemed to have improved and Henry believed he had beaten her cold. He turned the paper into his teacher, who gave him fifteen points extra credit. ("Very interesting, Henry. I especially enjoyed your creative uses for it in meals. A salad. Very interesting. Good work.")

But the day after that, Maggie's cold spiked again. In the middle of their last class of the day she began coughing extremely hard, seeming completely unable to get her breath. The teacher stopped his lecture and looked at her. "Miss Winnock? Are you alright?" he asked. Maggie wasn't able to stop coughing long enough to give an answer. From Henry's perspective, she seemed to be turning blue.

The teacher looked around, seeming alarmed. "Mr. Griffin? Would you accompany Miss. Winnock to the Health Room, please?"

Henry stood up as quickly as he could without knocking over his desk-chair hybrid. "Yes, sir." He walked quickly over to Maggie. "Maggie," he hissed. "Can you stand up?" She nodded, trying to stop coughing, and stood up. "Don't worry about your bag. I'll get it." He picked up her bag and led her out into the hallway.

Once in the hallway, she managed to stop coughing just long enough to take in a couple deep breaths. "Are you okay?" He said anxiously. "You have to go to the doctors, okay? Come on, let's get you to the Health Room."

It took them awhile, because every few minutes she would double over coughing again, and wouldn't be able to walk. Eventually he decided that the fasted way to do anything was to pick her up and carry her, which he did. Now that she was extremely close to him, he could hear a strange crackling sound coming from her lungs. Her could also feel her heartbeat, which was going extremely fast. And her skin seemed warmer than it had before. "I think you have more than a cold," he told her.

"Maybe…" she admitted between a burst of coughing. She was trying not to cough on him, instead aiming for her elbow. "You can put me down, I can walk I think."

He ignored her, and continued to carry her, despite her weak protests that she was fine, and could walk on her own. Eventually they made it into the Health Room, and he put her down on one of the narrow beds. The nurse came in after him and tilted her head down to listen to Maggie's breathing, noting the strange crackling sound. "I think she has pneumonia. Do you know if her parents are home and can come pick her up?"

"My dad is on a work trip," Maggie said between another fit of coughing. "He can't come home for a few days…I can go home and rest though."

"No, you can't go home if you're going to be alone," the nurse said worriedly. "I need to call the hospital for you, okay? I can't have you home alone and it sounds like your pneumonia has become a lot more serious then I would like."

Maggie seemed about to protest, but then stopped. She seemed tired. "Okay," the nurse said to Henry. "I'm going to call the hospital and get their opinion on what to do. Can you stay with her until I get back?" She headed out quickly.

"Maggie…now look what you've done," he said, his head beginning to whirl. He remembered his backpack, still over his shoulders, and slid it off and set it on the ground by her bed. "How do you feel?"

"I'm tired. And my muscles hurt and my head hurts," she said. "And breathing is difficult. But besides that I'm alright." She coughed again, but it was less forceful. He handed her a tissue, and she spit some sort of mucus into the tissue. "That's better," she whispered. Henry took it from her and put it in the garbage can, and she laid back down.

"Are you cold?" Henry asked. She nodded, and he found a blanket and put it over her. The nurse came back in. "The hospital said that she should be brought to the hospital, even though it's not an emergency just yet. They sent an ambulance over."

Henry sat down to wait. Maggie was asleep, exhausted from all of her coughing. When the ambulance arrived, without the sirens because it was not yet an emergency, she did not wake up. Two people came in with a stretcher and picked her up and put her on the stretcher. One grabbed her backpack on the way out. They drove away and left.

Henry remained staring out the window until the nurse lightly touched his shoulder. "You should head back to class."

He nodded quickly and stood up, walking numbly back to class. "Where is Margaret?" His teacher asked, seeming perplexed.

"She's at the hospital. She had pneumonia." He said this bluntly, and went to sit back down. Fifteen minutes later, the bell rung, and he caught Jasper, who had just come from a different class. "Jasper. You have to take me to the hospital."

"Oh my God, Henry. Are you okay? What's wrong?" Jasper dragged him forcefully over to the car and pushed him in. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"It's not for me, it's for someone else. Please go."

Jasper started the car, but remained in the parking space. "What happened? Who are we going for? Henry! What's going on?"

"The girl that I have fallen in love with is in the hospital. She is sick." Jasper turned to look at him, his eyes wide and confused. His jaw dropped, but he began to drive. Henry had to punch him in the shoulder to remind him to look where they were going.

"I'm in love with Maggie. Margaret Winnock. Maggie. Please drive!" Henry could feel tears coming to his eyes. They surprised him. _Maggie. MaggieMaggieMaggie. Please be okay. Please._


	5. Chapter 5

Meeting You

** I'm so sorry this took so long! My family went to see family in Denmark and really, it was hard to get on any sort of computer with all that we were doing and the jetlag to boot. I'm sorry! And I'll probably be very infrequent with my updates as school starts soon and I go to an extremely intense school. But I'll try.**

Maggie wasn't in the hospital long. Her dad was called, and he came home the next day. She wasn't exactly sick enough to be in the hospital anyway. So she went home. Henry called her the day she got back home (he had seen her at the hospital, but she was asleep and he let her stay that way). It took two attempts, once when he had the phone (he called someone who spoke only Japanese, which he did understand a bit of, and was able to apologize) and once when Uncle Bartlett had the phone (which worked).

"Hey," he said when she picked up the phone. "How are you doing?"

She coughed several times. "I'm doing better, thanks. I got an IV when I was there so I'm nice and hydrated. And I'll be out of school for a bit. I'm going to get so behind!" she lamented. He smiled, because it seemed like her to be upset, and promised to bring her the work she had missed when he walked home from school the next day.

"But you aren't to return until you are much better," he reminded her. "I need to know that you aren't going to have a coughing fit and die. I read up on pneumonia and I know it takes awhile to get over but really…I don't want you coming back any earlier than Monday." (It was Thursday. He wanted her to have the weekend to rest and stuff.) "Also, what is an IV?"

She explained about the IV (he decided that he never wanted one, and told her so, which made her laugh) and they decided that she would be back Monday, unless she had some sort of relapse. Then they stopped talking because she needed to sleep to get better and he had school the next day. When Henry turned away from the phone, he heard the sound of someone coming up the stairs. The sound of the footfalls was unmistakably Jasper's. Which was upsetting. He had been trying to avoid Jasper since his proclamation in the car.

Jasper wasn't about to have it though. He sat down on his bed, so that he was across from Henry, who was sitting on his hammock. "Whom did you just call?" he said, in what would have been a very friendly and conversational tone except that Henry and Jasper never spoke in friendly and conversational tones. They had two modes, Mode One (Jasper exasperated and Henry at a loss as to why) and Mode Two (Person A teasing Person B), and so Jasper was officially being sneaky.

"I called someone I wanted to talk to," Henry said, aware that he was being difficult. Jasper looked frustrated, but commented (in the same polite and conversational tone as before) about how impressed he was that Henry made a phone call, which was also strange as Jasper didn't compliment Henry at any point, no matter what. Henry felt even more obstinate then he had moments earlier, and found that the feeling was amusing in its own.

'Okay, Henry," Jasper said, still very polite and friendly. "I'll let it drop. You don't have to tell me. But…when I drove you to the hospital the other day…I seem to remember you saying something very strange. You said you were going to see Margaret Winnock. You weren't being serious, were you?" His voice had gone back to normal, with the half-scathing, half-incredulous tone that fairly screamed 'Does my cousin even have a brain?' at Henry. Jasper hadn't gone inside the hospital, he had been took shocked to do anything but sit in the car and wait for Henry to come back out.

"As a matter of fact, I was," came the response. Henry paused, enjoying the play of emotions over Jasper's face. Shock. Amusement. Shock again. Confusion. Understanding. Incredulity. Shock again. And finally, after much deliberation (another word that Maggie liked to use), he settled on just plain shock.

Jasper took a deep breath, somewhat shaken. "Okay," he continued. "Now, I might not be remembering this right, but I seem to recall you saying something very strange. You mentioned that this was 'the girl you loved' or something along those lines. You weren't possibly talking about Margaret Winnock at that moment, too, were you? When you were asking me about how to tell if you were in love with a girl, you weren't talking about Margaret then either, were you?" Henry didn't respond; he was displeased with the turn the conversation had taken. "Henry? I want an answer here. Are you in love with Margaret Winnock?"

"No," Henry said simply. Jasper let out a very large sigh of relief.

"Good," he said, his voice relaxed. "I mean; it wouldn't work at all for you. She's all intellectual and you go off your instincts…I'll admit she's kind of pretty, but she's also a pain in the neck and really stuck-up and stuff. I can't believe I thought-"  
>"I'm not in love with Margaret Winnock," Henry said, cutting him off. "I'm in love with Maggie Winnock. Margaret Winnock is just a face that she puts up so that jerks like you don't know just how much she does feel. Because she does! She cries when people give her a hard time. She's not cold. She's very friendly. She is not pretty. She's completely beautiful. And she is intellectual, but she does have normal human instincts too. I don't know why people like you have to always give her a hard time. You jerk." Jasper looked surprised. "Yes, she taught me to say jerk. And to ask 'what's up?" and told me in theory how to call with a phone. Your dad helped me though. So…leave it alone! I love her. Okay?"<p>

Jasper blinked. "That is the longest that I've ever heard you speak in one burst. But answer me this…does she love you? Are you two together? Is that why you keep waking up early each morning and walking too and from school?"

"That is why," Henry admitted. "But I don't think she loves me. I think I'm just her friend. Now leave me alone." His heart hurt all of a sudden, and he turned away from Jasper to lie down on his hammock. He hugged his chest and promptly stopped once he realized that it made him imagine hugging Maggie. They hadn't hugged. But he had wanted to when he saw her crying the first day. She was okay. He would bring her the homework tomorrow, and they could talk. They never need to be together to be happy. Being with her made him happy. That could be enough, couldn't it?

But he knew deep inside himself that he wanted to hold her hand. He wanted to tell her what he had, in desperation, told Jasper. He wanted to. And he wanted her to want the same things, to tell him the same things. And he wanted them not to have to hide it from the world. He wanted that. But he couldn't have it. _Jasper must be right. It would never work for us. Maybe it's best that she doesn't want it to. It'll make it all easier anyway._

Maggie coughed into her elbow, which was incased in warm, thick pajamas to fight out the unnaturally cold October air. She pretended not to hear her lungs creak and wheeze as the air came in and out. The coughing started again, and her father called down the hallway to ask if she was okay. She called back that she was, and sat up. Sitting up helped.

Her bed was alongside her window, and so when she sat up she could see over the rooftop of many of the DC houses. She knew that her window faced in the approximate direction of the Bartlett house, but couldn't be sure which of the little flecks of light was the room Henry was now in.

She let out a sigh, which triggered another bout of coughing.

Ever since she had woken up in the hospital the night before, she had been unable to get the memory of Henry carrying her out of her head. Sure it had been bad. She had been embarrassed that she couldn't walk, and had been much sicker than she had ever hoped to be. But at the same time it was extremely nice. And she realized in that moment that she was for sure in love with Henry Griffin. She had considered the thought for a while now, but wasn't sure until this moment. It was sad. He wouldn't be interested in her, he had told her how much it bothered him when girls always fawned over him like dogs.

A voice startled her from her thoughts. She must have been imagining things, but she could have sworn that she just heard Henry's voice.

She glanced at the phone still on the bedside table. She had forgotten to hang up again. Did Henry know to hang up? Was the phone still active on his end? She carefully picked the phone up and held it to her ear.

For the course of the conversation, she felt frozen. They were talking about her. And then she heard it. Jasper's voice asked if Henry loved Margaret Winnock.

She held her breath.

"No," Henry said.

That was all she needed. She hung up the phone and set it down before lying back down in bed. She felt tears start down her face, and curled up like a child, crying quietly so that she wouldn't be heard.


	6. Chapter 6

Meeting You

** I'm so sorry this took so long! I have been so busy with school and now I've found out that I'm a decent runner, so I was running Cross-Country! It was so much fun! But I've been drained….but I'm back? **

All of the mornings up until Monday, for maybe the first time in her life, Maggie woke up at the time she usually referred to as "The Henry Hour." That Monday was no different. The sky was cool and gray, as it had been all three previously way-too-early-in-the-mornings, and she had woken up to the sound of her own lungs trying to forcefully shove themselves out of her body, just as they had every morning.

"Well, we're up, aren't we," she said quietly to herself. She had never believed that hanging around in bed in the mornings had ever gotten anyone anywhere, and so she got up, blowing warm air onto her cold hands. She got dressed carefully, aware that moving too fast would make the coughing worse. When she got to the mirror to begin to comb her hair, she realized that she could still see the traces of Thursday-night's sadness on her face. "This is life," she told herself seriously. "Come on." She leaned over to splash water in her face. It was cold, but the tears she felt beneath were hot and salty.

Henry was also up early that morning, but that wasn't different from any other morning. He hadn't slept well, torn between two choices. _Do I get up and walk Maggie to school? Or do I let her go herself. She should drive, it's cold today, and I hope her cough is getting better. We haven't spoken since Thursday. _His eyes traveled around the dark room, where Jasper was sleeping in the bed across from him, a faintly sinister shape.

His dad had always told him that someday this day would come, when he would be interested in a girl. He had seen enough weddings to know what interested meant. It didn't seem to be for the same reasons here, and it didn't seem to always lead to a wedding, despite what people would say, but it was definitely the same. He had always expected his dad would be there to tell him what to do, or his mom, his parents, the people who had always shown him how to take care of himself and others. How had they managed to miss this lecture?

Sighing, he climbed out of bed. He was no closer to knowing what to feel, or how to feel it, but someone had to make sure that Maggie didn't try to walk herself to school in the cold, and it might as well be someone who was already up early and had a mind racing like a cat.

Jasper Bartlett was up early, and his mind was restless, turning itself over and over in the somewhat foggy manner of someone who had no purpose being up as early as he was. But Jasper had a purpose for being up, as much as he hated it. His mind was wearing itself out bouncing against the front part of his skull. _What do you mean, Henry? How did you fall in love? How did I miss it? _

As much as his cousin annoyed him, Jasper still felt a sense of responsibility for Henry. Something about the childlike wideness of his eyes when he was looking at something he had never seen before struck a chord in Jasper. Henry was his cousin. And now he was in a world Jasper couldn't understand, and Jasper wanted to know how and why.

Jasper ran the situation over in his head again. Henry loves Margaret. He doesn't think Margaret loves him. Now he is hurting. And he doesn't know whether she likes him or not. _Was I too abrupt in assuming it never would work? Does Henry still have it in him to try? _All of a sudden, he heard Henry leave the hammock, and Jasper pretended to be asleep. _Well, he's still walking to school with her. It's still there. Come on, Jasper. What do you need to do?_

_It's simple, _he thought to himself as he heard Henry shut the door. _Henry still has to keep trying. There might be hope. _Then the idea dawned on him. _I never thought I would ever talk to Margaret…_ He thought uneasily as he pulled himself out of bed.

Maggie had decided that, all together, it hadn't been too bad of a first day back. There had been some sickly-false questions about her house by the girls who had always hated her, which made her feel uneasy, concerned about their motives, but she had all the homework done and the teachers all were very nice about everything, not even reprimanding her for getting up to get a tissue to cough in every half hour or so.

Henry had come to meet her as she prepared to go to school, and insisted that she drive the car, which her dad had already insisted upon. They didn't speak much in the car, but she showed him the IV hole (he had winced) and he told her some funny story about when he was young. It was pleasant, but the whole time she wanted to ask him _why; _why he didn't love her, why he had come this morning, why was he content just to be her best friend when she wanted him to be her best-friend-and-even-more, which people said couldn't happen, but she thought that it could, looking at things logically. The problem was that people don't have logical hearts.

Now she was walking down the hallway on her way to lunch. The hallway was very empty, so she felt a sense of relief and she shifted her books into one arm and began to unlock her locker. As the flimsy metal door swung forward, she got the overwhelming sensation of someone standing behind her, and she turned slowly to meet the person's gaze.

Jasper Bartlett was standing in front of her sheepishly, his toes scuffing at the floor, looking as awkward as she felt. She had the sudden urge to climb into the locker and lock herself in. Maybe there _was _a Narnia.

Instead, she put on her Margaret face; the face that everyone thought had never laughed or cried. "What do you want, Bartlett," she said coldly, turning back around to load the unneeded books into her locker, and take out the ones she wanted. She addressed him by his last name, as she always did. It reminded him that he was the principle's son. That sort of brand wasn't likely to fade long enough to allow him to leave too many rude words in his wake.

"I'm here on account of my cousin," Jasper said, his voice tight and anxious. Maggie nearly lost her grip on her textbook as she turned back around to face him.

_Henry was right, _Jasper thought to himself. _She does feel. _He couldn't help but think that the perplexed look that was crossing her face made her look more human, and infinitely more likeable. "What do you mean?" she said, grasping for composure.

"My cousin loves you. He really does. I don't know how you feel, but now you know how he feels…I can't tell you what to feel, only that if you…feel…what he feels…then…go ahead and feel…" Jasper said, and turned around quickly, ready to walk away.

Maggie felt her breath catching in her throat and began to cough, struggling to breathe. Jasper looked back over at her, and she willed him away. He had given her…permission? What was he doing? The coughing got worse, and she slid to the ground, hitting her head on the sharp metal corner of the door and biting her lip. She felt herself bite her tongue hard, and tasted blood. "Are you okay?" Jasper asked.

She was coughing so hard that she couldn't breathe. Fumbling for the inhaler the paramedics had given her, she found herself unable to unzip the zipper.

Jasper bent down next to her and unzipped the zipper. "What are you looking for?" he said, panic showing up in his voice. She tried to take the backpack from him, but started coughing again. "Do you want the inhaler?" She nodded hard, and he handed it to her.

But she hadn't ever used it, and couldn't figure out exactly how it worked. Jasper took it back from her and shoved it into her mouth, jamming down the release so that the medication flowed into her lungs. She calmed down and took it from him. "Wait a minute, then do it again," he said.

She nodded, waited, and then did it again before removing it from her mouth. "Thank you," she said.

"My cousin loves you."

She believed it now, believed it so suddenly that she felt the sudden desire to hug Jasper. Instead, she laughed, and felt herself grow happy. "Thank you," she said again.

But Jasper had already walked away.


	7. Chapter 7

Meeting You

** I am so sorry! Life has been insane here. I have been extremely sick with something we cannot identify (there was a brief but horrible few weeks where we thought it was brain tumors…) but now I am here. **

Henry found himself confused that afternoon, unable to find Maggie. She had been in class all day, so she could not have gone home early due to being sick or anything. He sat patiently, waiting for her in his normal spot underneath the oak tree. _Where is she? She would not just go home without telling me, would she? _

All of a sudden he remembered that they had taken her car. Was she waiting for him? Had she already gone home? He went back to the parking lot, and saw that her car was still where he had left it that morning. He wandered inside, thinking he would stop by her locker and look in to see if she had grabbed her stuff.

He had just turned the corner that lead to the hallway her locker was on when he saw her, sitting crouched against the locker with her knees to her chest. At first, he was stuck by how similar she looked to the way she had been that day when he found her in the bathroom. He started walking quietly, worried that he would disturb her. Then he realized he could hear her breathing from where he was, loud and choking. He launched himself forward at what he assumed would be an illegal speed on the road.

He skidded to a stop a few feet in front of her, pulling his entire upper body in a vertical line as he tried to halt the momentum that he had built up. He somewhat succeeded, managing to slow himself down to the point that he only had to flail out his arms to stop him from sprawling on the waxed floor. "Maggie? Are you okay?"

She looked up at him, surprised, her beautiful brown eyes full of confusion. Tears were streaming out of her eyes, but it did not look like she had been crying. Her eyes were not red enough. He had seen her cry before, and this was not what it looked like. This was very different. But her eyes were too bright, and her face was flushed, and he could not tell why. "Henry? What are you doing?"

Sighing, he sat down next to her without another word. Instead, he reached out and pulled her to him in a hug. He felt her stiffen for a moment, and then she relaxed, coughing once.

She had not expected him to come sprinting around the corner like there was a hyena on his heels. He had told her about that story, and she could imagine he had the same panic-struck look on his face in that moment as he did in this one. She could understand being afraid of a hyena, but could not understand what was happening now. 

Then he had sat down next to her. She wanted to ask him what was happening, but she was stalled when she looked at him, at the crazed look in his eyes that relaxed when she had looked up at him. And then he had hugged her.

Maggie did not do hugs. It was one of the things that her Margaret self and her Maggie self agreed on. Hugs were awkward and weird and overused in general society. For a few seconds she wanted to fight him off. But then she stopped herself. He loved her, or so Jasper Bartlett told her. Margaret was not even a real person, anyway. She was just a mix of lies and misconceptions that other people had made before and she had slipped into. And she loved him, as her heart would not stop telling her. As much as she distrusted Jasper, there had been too much sincerity in his eyes for that statement to be false. So she relaxed.

"Are you alright?" Henry asked, holding her a distance away from himself so that he could look at her. "I was so worried about you. Did the coughing start up?"

She felt her heart sink back down, and she disentangled herself from his eyes. "Yeah. I used my inhaler though, so I am all right. Thank you for coming to check on me." It was a mistake. Maybe Jasper had been mistaken. Maybe…maybe…maybe he was just concerned for her as a friend. She stood up, grabbing her backpack. "Shall we go?"

Henry nodded, and they left, heading back out into the car. For a few seconds, neither of them spoke, and when the conversation started back up, she was sure that he could tell her heart was not in it.

Henry felt both happy and sad. He was happy for obvious reasons. She was all right. His fear t hat she had somehow managed to go off into the hallway and die without giving him a chance to try to save her was unfounded. And she had even let him hug her for a few seconds.

But that brought him back to why he was sad. For a few seconds, she had seemed so glad to see him, and had let him hug her, and had even seemed glad to be hugged. But then she had pulled away. Had he been mistaken, or had her mask that she used to hide behind gone up in that moment. Had he made her sad?

He kept glancing at her, starting at her as she drove, admiring the focus that would alight in her eyes, and the way that her small hands held the steering wheel as though she was in control, as opposed to the clenched, frightened way that Jasper held it. Jasper acted like his precious car had homicidal tendencies. Maggie turned to look at him. "What are you staring at, Henry?"

"Are you sad?" he asked bluntly. "You look sort of sad."

She shook her head. "No. I am okay. A little breathless, but I am okay. How about yourself? You seem really quiet."

"I am okay." _What did I do wrong?_

_How does he read me like this, the one person that I wish could not? _Maggie had never been an open book. She had always been able to hide her pain and sadness behind a mask of indifference. How had Henry managed to breach her defenses so easily, and at such a wrong moment?

She could tell that he was not really okay, and she knew it must be because of something that she had done. What had she done? She had not said anything that could have made him feel awkward. She felt terrible, and focused her eyes out of the front window, making sure that if she had to make him sad somehow, she at least could keep his bones intact.

Henry told her to drop him off at her house. She had been uncertain, but had let him go. He had no idea what to say or do, and was glad for the space. However, he did not want her to be able to tell, it would only make her even more sad and awkward. "I will see you tomorrow morning?" He left the invitation open, a question.

"Of course," she had replied. He had smiled at that. "I will see you, Henry."

He nodded and left, braving the cold. His whole way home, he puzzled over the conversation, the situation, and his whole life. He had been sure that she had loved him in that moment that they had hugged. Now he was not sure of anything at all.

Maggie had sat in the car for a full hour, just looking at her hands. What was she doing? What was happening to her? Her, of all people! Falling in love, puzzling over a boy, unable to figure out his feelings. Boys had always been so straightforward; they either loved or hated you.

They had always hated her. She grabbed her backpack and went inside. Her dad was not home. She had the house to herself. Her father was gone for the week. A cough rumbled in her chest, and she let it build up and burst out without fighting it. It hurt less that way.

She made herself some tea, and sat on the counter and waited for it to steep. When she remembered it, the water was nearly black. She checked the time, and forty-five minutes had gone by. "What is happening to you, Maggie?" she asked with her Margaret voice. Then she shook her head and stopped herself.

A strange idea, a Henry-idea, entered her head at that moment. She went outside, staring at the giant tree in her front lawn. "You sure?" she asked herself.

Then she began to climb, something she had never been enough of a child to do. She climbed so high that she could see inside her bedroom window, so high that she could see the top of her roof, and then even higher, until she could feel the tree shaking, herself shaking. And she looked out among the trees and the sky, and she felt close to Henry.

_Okay, Henry. I am up here in your part of the world. Being reckless. And it is beautiful. _

She contemplated climbing a branch higher, and branch farther into the sky, but then she felt the branch she was on grind and snap uncomfortably, and she realized that she was going to fall.

She could see a tiny figure on the ground, and she thought she recognized Henry's hair. "Henry!"

The figure looked up.

Henry had felt horrible about leaving without talking to her, and so he had turned around after putting the backpack in his house. He had managed to avoid Jasper, much to his delight.

He found himself close to her house, and paused, trying to figure out what he was going to say. He found himself looking up at the tree near her house. There was a small shape in the tree, extremely high up.

He came closer to the tree, still looking up at the spot.

"Henry!" a voice came down.

He felt his heart stutter. "Maggie? Are you up there?"

"Yes," she responded. He could see her clinging to the branch. The branch she was on was swaying, and he could tell that she was going to fall.

"Hang on, I am coming up." He started climbing up the tree, trying to go as quickly as he could. Here he was, in his element, trying to keep someone he loved safe. "Keep holding on. You cannot let go, okay!"

She nodded. The branch creaked above him. He climbed higher, and was just under her. He reached up and put his arms around her waist. "Careful, Maggie. Can you drop down and sit on your branch for me?"

"It will break," she said, hardly daring to breathe.

"Just try."

She sat down, and the branch snapped, rotten under her tiny frame. He yanked her forward just as the branch went out from under her, and she momentarily was hanging in mid-air. "Henry!"

He yanked her back up, and she grabbed him, holding on to him as tight as she could. He held onto her, and they both sat there. He could feel her heart beat against his chest.

The world shivered around them.


End file.
